Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/100

 8o Hijlory of Domejiic Manners CHAPTER V. THE EARLY NORMAN PERIOD. LUXURIOUSNESS OF THE NORMANS. ADVANCE IN DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. ^THE KITCHEN AND THE HALL. PROVISIONS AND COOKERY. BEES. THE DAIRY. MEAL- TIMES AND DIVISIONS OF THE DAY. FURNITURE. THE FALDESTOL. CHAIRS AND OTHER SEATS. A GREAT change was wrought in this country by the entrance of the Normans. From what we have feen, in the courfe of the preceding chapters, fociety feems for a long time to have been at a ftand- ftill among the Anglo-Saxons, as though it had progreffed as far as its own fimple vitality would carry it, and wanted fome new impulfe to move it onwards. By the entrance of the Normans, the Saxon ariftocracy was deftroyed ; but the lower and, in a great meafure, the middle claffes were left untouched in their manners and culioms, which they appear to have preferved for a confiderable length of time without any material change. The Norman hiftorians, who write with prejudice when they fpeak of the Saxons, defcribe their nobility as having become luxurious without refinement 5 and they tell us that the Normans introduced greater fobriety, accompanied with more oftentation. "The nobility," fays William of Malmefbury, " was given up to luxury and wantonnefs. .... Drinking in parties was an univerfal praftice, in which occupation they palTed entire nights as well as days. They confumed their whole fubftance in mean and defpicable houfesj unlike the Normans and French, who, in noble and fplendid manfions, lived with frugality. The vices attendant on drunkennefs, which enervate the human mind, fol- lowed. ... In fine, the Englidi at that time (under king Harold) wore fliort garments, reaching to the mid-knee ; they had their hair cropped, their beards lliaven, their arms laden with golden bracelets, their Ikin adorned